Student endure ramshackle classrooms
It’s a familiar story around Belize: too many students and not enough classrooms. Today News Five’s Jacqueline Woods took a look at one particular educational situation in Belize City and found that while things are bad, there is hope on the horizon.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Today schools across the country closed for the Easter break and while most high-schoolers are no doubt looking forward to the two week vacation, students at one south-side institution are thankful to get a break from the deplorable conditions that exist at their school. Since the Sadie Vernon High School was transferred to the old two storey wooden building on Dean Street, the structure has been steadily deteriorating.
Amira Awe Bodden, Vice Principal, Sadie Vernon High School
“It’s been a challenge let me tell you. I think the management is always saluting the staff for their efforts, a tenacious effort I have to say. The ventilation is poor and the lighting and the divisions, they are blackboard divisions so the noise carry over so it has been very difficult for us over the years, but we have survived and we’ve done very good over the years.”
Today, the building is no longer safe for the students and staff.
Termites have totally taken over the structure and there is poor ventilation.
Amira Awe Bodden
“We have to change boards every year, sometimes within the school year, blackboards sometimes fall apart because of the woodlice problem that kind of thing.”
“Like I said the ventilation is poor so on very hot days it’s even worse for our students. I am sure everybody in the country feels the heat but its so terrible for our students that sometimes we have to have 30 minute classes to have them go early and get relieved.”
Tasha Rowland, Student
“I think it is bad for students to be in the building, a building like this and have to function the proper way.”
The classrooms are divided by blackboards making it difficult for the students to learn.
Marlene Robateau, Student
“For us it is a bit hard because sometimes when we are doing tests and the other class is making noise we cannot concentrate good. But we try to get along with it because we have to because there is no other way to get through it.”
Melonie Felix, Student
“Basically it is very hard students to think in a building like this because how can we think when whenever it rains, water leaks and we have cats all over the building. We have woodlice, broken windows, and holes. It is very difficult for us as students.”
But no matter how hard it has been on the staff and students, they have remained optimistic and have learned to deal with the situation the best way they can.
Amira Awe Bodden
“The teachers have been wonderful in terms of their creativity. They have teamed up with their students to put stuff on the walls and make it more conducive for learning. They have tried so hard to work around it. Especially the noise level, we get fans in the classroom so the students can feel more comfortable, we try to space them out because the building does have a lot of space. In terms of having classroom conducive to learning that is imperative and that has always been a priority for the staff members. So I think they have been struggling but have been surviving and doing well.”
The good news is that It’s a struggle the teachers and students will soon no longer have to endure. In December construction on a new building got started.
Amira Awe Bodden
“To my mind this has in a sense is justice served. For a long time we have been known as the roving school and through the tenacious effort of the school management and the Ministry of Education finally we will have a home of our own. This new building I think in the final analysis will provide stability to the life of the school overall and above and beyond all things I think the building will help the school community to fulfill the mission of the institution.”
Tasha Rowland
“Well I am really happy with the new school, so that the ventilation will be okay for us and we could function the proper way and can be on the same level as the other schools.”
The building is scheduled to be opened in the early summer. Presently there are 210 students at Sadie Vernon High School.
Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
For those who may not know her, Sadie Vernon, now retired, had a distinguished career as an educator and community leader. She was for many years the Executive Secretary of the Belize Council of Churches.
